Defence Housing Australia (DHA) announced in August the launch of DHA Investment Management Limited (DHA IML), and its first residential property fund.

The DHA Residential Property Fund No. 1, an exclusive partnership with Centric Wealth, aims to provide investors stable income streams combined with the potential for capital growth over the medium-to longer-term through exposure to a diversified portfolio of Australian residential property.

“For a number of years we have wanted to diversify our funding source beyond our very successful Sale and Leaseback (SLB) program. This Fund allows us to do this, while also providing more options to those that want to invest with DHA.”

Units are available via Centric Wealth and the demand for units has been impressively high.

“For the first time investors will be able to buy into a geographically diverse residential portfolio of DHA properties in all major Australian capital cities. DHA provides its property management capabilities backed by a long-term lease to make a fund like this kind possible.”

All properties will be centrally managed by DHA, providing security of income and no ongoing property management. They will be sold with long-term leases to be available for Defence members and their families, and will be subject to lease-end restoration services.

“The fund has a targeted investment term of ten years, with distributions paid quarterly,” Mr Howman said.

DHA Investment Management Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of DHA and has been granted an Australian Financial Services License by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

DHA is very active in the Australian residential property market, with approximately 19,000 properties Australia-wide, worth around $10 billion, and a development pipeline of more than $1 billion. DHA maintains a standalone AA+ credit rating (Standard & Poors).